Friday, August 24, 2007

On his campaign web site, Sessions tries to spin his way out of having to explain why he wants the richest 1 percent keep tax cuts while leaving everyone else with a big ill to pay for years and years to come. Sessions begins his defense with an out-and-out lie-- that "tax and spend Democrats" are trying to strangle all of us with tax increases...

Of course, we all remember that it was "borrow and spend" Republicans who got us into debt, not Democrats.

Kos blogger alaprst goes on to write:

Are "tax and spend liberals" to blame for our fiscal mess? Sessions and other Republicans are not only wrong, but dead wrong. They've been wrong on fiscal responsibility throughout the Bush regime, and they're even more wrong for Texas and the rest of the nation.My state and district deserve better than Republican politicians who try to re-write history and blame everyone else for their own failures. Pete Sessions, John Cornyn, and their ilk deserve to be sent down to defeat, and it's up to Democrats not only to field a formidable candidate to face Cornyn (as they will if Rick Noriega is chosen to be the nominee) but to find just as strong opposition to Sessions and others who put the interests of Bush and their wealthy contributors above the interests of the rest of us.

In 1979 Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff, began work at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in its Gadsden, Alabama location. During her years at the factory, raises were given and denied based on evaluations and recommendations regarding worker performance. In March 1998, Ledbetter inquired into the possible sexual discrimination of the Goodyear Tire Company. In July she filed formal charges with the EEOC. In November 1998, after early retirement, Ledbetter sued claiming pay discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The Court ruled in favor of Goodyear, since she didn't file her complaint within a 180-day time frame.

Regular people like us are wondering how you can find out you're being discriminated against in 180 days, when most companies don't allow employees to discuss salary! H.R. 2831 answers that "The Ledbetter decision undermines those statutory protections by unduly restricting the time period in which victims of discrimination can challenge and recover for discriminatory compensation decisions or other practices, contrary to the intent of Congress."

The bill passed on pretty much of a straight party-line vote (225-199), with Pete Sessions joining Republicans in voting against the bill. (See Roll No. 768).